Poison Pen

don't worry, she doesn't bite anymore.

Sunday, April 17, 2005

crabby

dined alone at mccormick and schicks tonight. ive been doing that a lot lately. dining alone that is, not going to m&s. i finally realised that i dont know anybody who shares my passion for eating out, so rather than battle with microwaved daal, i should just go out on my own.

id been to this restaurant a couple of times before. its a seafood place, and i adore seafood. i guess you cant keep a bong away from maach for too long, :). its a bit expensive but not outrageous.

while i was digging into my platter of shrimp, scallop and oyster, i remembered a time many years ago when a friend told me that to cook crabs you have to chop their legs off and then boil them alive. my gentle heart revolted and i declared that i would never eat seafood again. after a while that extended to all kinds of meat. i even remember joining some girls from school in PFA rally, and even attending a couple of maneka gandhis talks. my grandmother was apalled. 'maach khabe na mane?'. but i didnt budge. then that phase passed too, like all phases in my life. one by one, all gods animals reappeared on my plate.

today as i used my spoon to scoop out meat from an oyster shell, i thought that the oyster must have died painfully, but i didnt flinch. after so many years, the idea of a painful death isnt as terrifying as it must be to a 15-year old schoolgirl.

instead i thought of my friend. he read a lot and was always telling me wondrous stories. none of us could ever prove him wrong and he knew it. so he would gleefully add his own embellishments to everything he said. i remember when i was 10 he told me that babies were made when a boy does 'su-su' inside a girl. i was disgusted and called him a liar. he wasn't too far from the truth though. i havent seen him in 9 years now. i hope he put his immense stock of knowledge to good use somewhere. i also hope his ideas on how babies are made were corrected by some kind soul.

i just googled and discovered that crabs ARE cooked by being boiled alive. what a smart little boy!

9 Comments:

  • At 10:58 AM, Blogger thalassa_mikra said…

    Hello fellow cuisine explorer! Thanks for stopping by, and I see you are talking of seafood, which I love immensely, but mostly fish. I plan to write a short wine blog, and mention Greek wine, but I do think a lot of Greek whites go very well with fish. Just make some maachh bhaja, and pair it with a nice Assyrtiko. Yummmm..

     
  • At 10:59 AM, Blogger thalassa_mikra said…

    Maybe you should get together with folks from your local chowhound or egullet when they go exploring food.

    www.chowhound.com
    www.egullet.com

     
  • At 11:05 PM, Blogger Sparsh said…

    :) heh

     
  • At 12:54 PM, Blogger eM said…

    Your friend is nothing compared to a friend of mine who in class 12 rushed into school one day going, "Guys, guys, he kissed me! Am I going to get pregnant?" Jeez.

     
  • At 3:00 PM, Blogger Mint Chutney said…

    Hi there. Thanks so much for stopping by my blog. Where do you live. (Asking a general question, don't mean to be a stalker)

     
  • At 5:42 PM, Blogger J. Alfred Prufrock said…

    Aren't you done being crabby? Time for a post, methinks.

    J.A.P.

     
  • At 12:18 PM, Blogger Sparsh said…

    "haaa...thats it. How could i have been so blind. Right before my beady eyes on a stalk. The answer to the question of life...the meaning of it all...the beauty of....hey...leggo of me...waddya mean VishnuP is hungry. R u kidding me...im on the verge of...heyy...leggo me leg. Boiling waterr?? Oh k. Im toast."

     
  • At 8:28 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    hey hey hey vish! wow it's been so long. i stumbled by through jap's site.

    wouldn't say much has changed with you. not the crabbiness, not the poor taste in movies and not the excessive use of pink. well anyway, i'm in the boston area next week. we should meet up (like, totally). hopefully you still have my number. (no,I didn't change it) So call me

    k

     
  • At 6:06 AM, Blogger J. Alfred Prufrock said…

    TWO points to exult over.

    One, that my blog can actually serve a purpose. (But who is this anonymous K?)

    Two, that a fellow Mocambo enthusiast lurks in cyber-space. But Satch kahoon toh, I have never seen LMB on the menu and I can probably recite it backwards by now.
    What they REALLY do well is the Fish a la Diana (prawns wrapped in fish fillets and poached in a creamy wine sauce) and the Chicken Pavlograd (Kiev, but with cheese and bacon).

    Mmmmm ....

    J.A.P.

     

Post a Comment

<< Home